South by Southwest 2011, WOOO! Show me your floppies!

I headed down to the massive music smorgasbord last week and hit up the Buzzgrinder showcase in what was my second trip to SXSW overall. I went two years ago to catch Frodus — and hot dog, were they fantastic. I even took pictures for you guys!

For living just three hours from Austin most of my life, I’ve done a pretty shit job of being a musicphile and going to one of the staples of the music industry. And now that I’m a crusty old man –- scratch that, a crusty old father — I’ll probably go even more infrequently. Sigh, the lamentations of getting old.

BUT! I made it there this year and I had an effin’ blast. First off, the Buzzgrinder showcase at Valhalla was awesome. My friend Jonny and I got into town late and missed The Seedy Seeds (sadface!) but was able to catch Now, Now and J Roddy Walston and the Business, who proceeded to rock mine and Jonny’s faces off — along with everyone else in that great club (what clean bathrooms!) — while getting tipsy from free Little Kings beer.

After that, I walked back to my friend’s house, got into my car and picked up another friend across town. We dicked around my friend’s house a little while the rest of the gang searched, in vain, for a secret Jack White show (they got Wanda Jackson instead).

We finally got back to Sixth Street and saw an incredible set from Astronautalis at Easy Tiger (full band performance!) before heading down to The Dirty Dog Bar for Yelawolf.

It was midnight by that point, so most of our group went home (lame), but Jonny and I forged on. Lo and behold, we were pleasantly surprised by a raucous set from The Features. They were great, as was Yela, who let me rap a couple of lines during one song.

Where was Sean during all this? Partying with The Seedy Seeds and waiting for TV on the Radio like the badge-having mofo he is. We left the next morning (hey, I’m a dad, remember?) and all in all, it was an awesome, fantastic time.

I got onto you guys last week for not suggesting anything and I suppose the admonishment worked, because the suggestions came flooding in. I went ahead and went with Luke’s suggestion of Oceansize, mainly because they just broke up and I like to torture myself by getting into bands after the fact.

I dug this stuff. It’s not really typical of stuff you’d hear from England, at least not any stuff that I’ve heard. And I love that tiny little island. I have dreams of buying a flat in Manchester and spending half my time in a pub and the other half watching the Red Devils play footy. But Oceansize is — er, was — really good. Their live version of A Homage to a Shame was incredible. Reading up on them online, I found out that they were pretty great live.

So there was this band from England called Busted that was sort of like London’s answer to The Ataris, and after they broke up, one of the dudes started a band that wrote fucking concept albums about Neon Genesis Evangelion.

I don’t know why I’m telling you this. It just kind of blows my mind.

Alright, peanuts, that’s it for me. Hope to see some of you tomorrow, and I’ll have a complete breakdown and the shenanigans next week. Just to refresh you guys on the criteria for music suggestions, it’s got to be new, or newish; a band that’s really only been around for the past five years. Beyond that, it’s open season. Suggest away, you scallywags!

One Response to “Old and Jaded: A Cartoon About Giant Robots and Aliens? How Do They Mess That Up?”

1. 

   On 03/24/11 12:09 PM, kyle u said:

   uh oh, people aren’t giving a shit anymore?

   first comment, take my suggestion.

   CLOUD MOUTH

   INSANELY good noise punk from Chicago. I put the bandcamp URL as my ‘website’ so click my name.

   Hewhocorruptsinc reissued “that ghost is always with me” with half the proceeds going to charity so you could do that.

   OR

   order yourself one of the vinyl. and while you are at it get me one too.

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